THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Music has been known to bring out the best of us, but I never expected it to test our limits until I saw Coco.
PLOT
The film follows Miguel who lives in Santa Cecilia with his family. For generations, they have been in the shoemaking business because years prior, his double great grandmother Imelda pursued it to put behind being abandoned by her husband who chose to pursue music. Ever since, she has banished music from the family and Miguel's abuelita Elena has kept on the tradition. However, Miguel loves music and aspires to be famous like the late musician/actor Ernesto de la Cruz. On the day of the holiday 'Dia de los Muertos' or Day of the Dead, Miguel inadvertently discovers a family portrait of Imelda with her daughter Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguia) when she was a baby, but the face of her husband is removed. Noticing the rest of the body in the photo carrying Enresto's guitar, Miguel believes the celebrity is his double great grandmother. When he shares his revelation, they still forbid him to embrace his dream and Elena ensures it by destroying his own guitar. Heartbroken, he runs away and sneaks into a mausoleum containing Ernesto's guitar. He does so with the intent to borrow it for musical competition. When he strums it, he ends up getting stuck in the Land of the Dead. As he explores, he finds the spirits of his late relatives including Imelda, that are in the form of skeletons. The latter is unable to visit due to her photo not being present at the family ofrenda. With the help of the other half of his family, they realize taking Ernesto's guitar cursed him and he now must receive a blessing (in the form of a pedal) from at least one relative by sunrise to return home or he will be permanently dead. Imelda offers Miguel her blessing under the condition he abandons music. Knowing that he can't make such a promise, he chooses to pursue Ernesto's blessing instead. He seeks the help of another skeleton named Hector, who is trying to get his own photo or an ofrenda or he will be soon forgotten, which will cause him to vanish. He agrees to help Miguel get to Ernesto if he helps him in return. The live boy does take part of a musical competition to win an invitation to the celebrity's mansion, but that plan backfires when his relatives spot him. Hector finds himself upset since of making things difficult since he claimed Ernesto was his only ancestor. This causes the two to separate and although Imelda tries to corner her descendant, Miguel calls her out on how she'll never let him do what he loves. He does get to sneak into Ernesto's mansion and tells him they are related. They bond overnight and before the celebrity gives him his blessing back home, Hector sneaks in as well and demands the boy to put up his photo before leaving. Ernesto would be surprised to see him since he wrote his songs before dying. Things would take an unexpected turn when a film playing in the background has Miguel deduce Ernesto poisoned him to pass off his work as his own, making everyone believe Hector choked on his food. Wanting to protect his legacy, he sends the two in a pit. There, Hector confesses how much he wanted to see his daughter Coco again. This would surprise Miguel as this would reveal he is his double great grandpa instead of De la Cruz. They soon get rescued by the family, which gives Miguel the chance to explain the truth to Imelda. Once she chooses to reconcile with Hector, she and the rest of the family agree to retrieve Hector's photo from Ernesto before the boy goes home. In the process, they expose the truth to the Land of the Dead. Despite doing the right thing, the murderous fraud continues to act without regret by throwing Miguel off a balcony. Although he loses Hector's photo in the process, he is saved by Imelda's spirit animal, the Pepita. The spirit animal would retaliate by knocking Ernesto into a bell tower and be crushed by a bell, much like how he was originally killed. With Hector at the brink of being forgotten, Imelda quickly gives Miguel a blessing with no conditions just before sunrise. When he returns home, he quickly goes to his great grandma Coco and helps her remember her father. He uses Hector's guitar and sings one of his songs to help her do just that. The moment would bring the live family together and inspire them to accept music again. Coco would save the memory of her father by showing the torn photo she saved as well as letters confirming he wrote Ernesto's songs. A year after this incident, Coco would pass away but would get to reunite with her parents in the afterlife. The film would end with Miguel celebrating Dia de Los Muerto with his family, playing music proudly for the first time.
THOUGHTS
As an adult, it does make me smile how children younger than me get to have films that’ll define their own childhood. From the moment I saw this film, I knew this would definitely be one of them. Pixar is known to improve with computerized animation with each film they produce and it’s no exception here because every shown color is so beautiful. I never thought I would ever say that with the setting of the Land of the Dead. But as a Mexican, I know there couldn’t be any better way to show because the beauty behind the setting represents how at peace one is when their life reaches an end. Even the colors used for the spirit animals like the fierce Pepita or the adorable dog Dante who wasn’t intending to be one anyway. Witnessing this journey was worth getting through because Directors Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina are able to tell viewers to always treasure everything that makes your family or you won’t be able to remember them later. In this case, we must always treasure because it will always tell stories special in their own way, which is exactly what the song ‘Remember Me’ is all about. And at the same time, we have to seize every moment possible because they won’t always be available when you’d like them to be. All of that is exactly why we get to love the lead Miguel. From the voice alone, Anthony González portray him as a kid who is undoubtedly humble as he loves his family no matter what, but his dream he wishes to achieve unintentionally makes him defiant. He doesn’t want to his disrespect his family, but he had to make his voice heard to prove his determination. He didn’t plan to have such a journey to he what he wanted, yet it was worth it due to how it brought his family together on both sides. Seeing him sing with Coco was gut wrenching at first because there was no guarantee of it working until it did, hence being heartwarming by the end of it. And when you get to see his family one by one, you know where he gets spirit from. When you look at Elena and her mother Imelda, it is quick to see how overly strict they are. However, both Renée Victor & Alanna Ubach show they had good reason to act such. Imelda lived the majority of her life being so stern because she was heartbroken losing the one she loved without knowing the truth. She had to banish music to prevent Coco from abandoning her like she mistook Hector for. She didn’t even wanna bother talking to him in the Land of the Dead because that is how bitter the situation made her. Elena grew up with what she was told and chose to respect it more than she should have. It took longer than it should have to give Miguel a chance, but that comes to show it is never too late to make a change. During this journey, it was a relief Miguel had at least one relative that encouraged him to do what he wanted. Gael García Bernal had us appreciate Hector for being able to be a guy who loved his family while still wanting to be free spirited, which is the life Miguel is seeking. He was willing to abandon fame and stop making music because he knew his family was more valuable than that. And with that, the respect is a given. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think Miguel would be as driven as he was to get back home. Up showed how it is not always great to meet your heroes, so it sucked to be reminded of it here. Benjamin Bratt flexed incredible range for having us believe Ernesto was a charming guy only to really be a vile figure desperate to have glory he doesn’t deserve. Poisoning your songwriter because he respectfully didn’t want to work with you anymore? That is cold as hell. And if you don’t think that was of him, he was willing to kill Miguel to keep his secret buried with him. Luckily, Miguel was still able to do the right thing and spread the word that had to be told. Since this is the first semi-musical for Pixar, it was hard to pick a favorite song. While everyone loves the catchy Oscar winning hit Remember Me (whichever version you hear), my favorite was ‘Proud Corazon’ for maintaining the spirit that makes you different from the rest. Hearing Miguel sing it at the very end warms my heart because I know for sure he will pass that on to the future generation of his family, making arguably the happiest ending in Pixar’s history. This film will always have a special place in my heart, but the instant love doesn’t overshadow the issues I noticed upon re-watching. For example, it was a bold way to have Ernesto killed off by a bell, but why did it have to be real? Authenticity is one thing, but safety should’ve been superior when designing that stage. Reality is even bent like crazy when realizing the guitar survived the bell’s impact. And I thought it was a bad idea for Miguel to try sneaking in on Day of the Dead of all days. If his family is still celebrating that, he was bound to be stopped. And I don’t understand why doesn’t the Pepita break through the doorway or fly to other side of the alleyway to block Miguel. If Imelda doesn’t want to waste any time sending him back home, she should’ve instructed her spirit animal to do that. And what a god damn coincidence it was for the movie Ernesto starred in to play in the background on cue, giving Hector & Miguel the chance to deduce he’s a murderer. If he was really gonna cover his tracks, Ernesto should’ve recommended that movie to not be played especially if he didn’t want Hector to figure out the truth. And where the hell did he even get the poison? It’s not like he had it on time all tour long, so there had to have been a point where he got it hours prior, which bothers me we don’t know when exactly. Other than that, this movie remains amazing for what it is. In short, Coco is one of Pixar’s finest additions in their filmography for making us embrace everything that makes our family special, earning the Best Animated Feature Oscar in the process. If you’re a music lover or wanna spark up your holiday viewings during Fall, this will do it for you.
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